Chevy 2.2 Timing chain

I would think the first thing to do is determine if it is the timing chain rather than jumping to conclusions. A little diagnostic work may save you a lot of grief.

Since the truck is dead, grief is relative. Its Not turning over with the proper compression sound. A little on line research shows that its not uncommon for the chain tensioner on 2.2 to go bad on these and possibly cause the chain to jump teeth. Got it towed by a buddy and i will tear into it next week. I am hoping if it is just a jump of a few teeth that there is no valve damage. I did not hear any mechanical noise when it quit. Or when i cranked it after the fact. I have heard noise in the front of the engine for awhile. I assumed it was just the serp belt tensioner. My fault for NOT looking closer at it before it died.

Now the task is trying to figure out how to get it apart. I do have the shop manual now. Hopefully standard pullers will allow me to remove the crank pulley and the crank pulley mount flange.

The timing chain cover seems to bolt to the oil pan. (the shop manual shows two lower bolts into the oil pan) The manual does not say specifically if the oil pan has to come off or not. Also, the tensioner is an issue. Is the OEM any better than an after market or des it matter? Surely Ian would know about this and shed some light on the situation.

Bob

You may find that chain is broken. I've seen a few of these engines where the tensioner goes sideways and things get jammed up and the chain gets broken.

Yes, no big deal really.

You don't have to take off the oil pan. The seal on the front cover to the oil pan is RTV, so once you've cleaned all the old RTV off, and have cleaned both the pan surface and the front cover surface so that they are "clean and dry", you can simply lay down a good bead of RTV on the pan surface and then put the front cover in place.

I seem to remember that the tensioner on this engine has been updated. I've used aftermarket ones years ago on the same basic engine, and they ended up coming apart in weeks.

Oh, the front timing cover seal does require a special tool to get into the front cover properly when the front cover is still attached to the engine, but if you have the front cover off, you ought to be able to find something that is the correct diameter to use as an installer.

Ian

Thank you so much for the response. I knew if anyone here was knowledgeable about it that you should know. Now, your comment about the tensioner has got me thinking. The after market ones are around $20. I have not looked at one yet. There was another post i found on Google about a guy who said he had tensioners go bad ever 3000 to 5000 miles and it drove him nuts. Could this be the issue with the aftermarket tensioners being crap? Talked to my brother in law who talked to his friend who does GM work and he seemed to think that most of the time only the top cam gear and chain need to be replaced (and tensioner). Do you think after market parts are OK for the chain and cam gear?

He also said he has seen some 2.2's with holes in the pistons and bent valves. IN the units you have seen, how common is this?

Bob

Probably...I never had any luck with them and went back to just using the GM stuff. I can't remember why I went with the aftermarket stuff, as I'm usually not into that. Probably had a cheap friend on my hands (grin).

Oh yeah...the chain and gears seem to be fine even if they are aftermarket. I'd agree too about the crank sprocket...unless you can feel marks in it from the chain...I wouldn't bother changing it.

Haven't seen that....but my advice would be to install a new chain and tensioner and before you even put the front cover back on....do a compression test. This will tell you right away if you bent any valves. This is what I do so I don't waste my time and the customers money putting the engine all back together again.

Ian

what sound was it making before it quit running? Was it a whining noise??

replying to Bob Urz, jking2012 wrote: How did this work out? My son's truck is having similar problems.

-- for full context, visit

replying to Bob Urz, jking2012 wrote: I was wondering how this worked out. My son's truck is having similar problems and was hoping for advice. I'm thinking that it might have jumped time.. I've had people tell me that it might have jumped time but also had someone tell us that it hasn't. I'm pretty frustrated at this point. He was driving and it quit. The engine is turning but not firing (recently had a friend check and the spark plugs are getting fire). It's giving off these codes: P0141 O2 sensor heater circuit fault (bank 1, sensor 2). P0300 cylinder misfire detected (random). P0342 camshaft position sensor circuit, low voltage. We know that it's not fuel pump, O2 sensor, plugs/plug wires, camshaft position sensor, crankshaft sensor, coil, fuses, or relay. I know that it could be so many other things as well. I was hoping for some input because I really don't want to go through all of the trouble and it turns out that isn't the problem. Could a fuel injector cause this? Is there a way to find out if the timing chain is a problem without tearing down to visually see it? Any and all advice is very welcomed.

replying to Bob Urz, jking2012 wrote: I was wondering how this worked out. My son's truck is having similar problems and was hoping for advice. I'm thinking that it might have jumped time.. I've had people tell me that it might have jumped time but also had someone tell us that it hasn't. I'm pretty frustrated at this point. He was driving and it quit. The engine is turning but not firing (recently had a friend check and the spark plugs are getting fire). It's giving off these codes: P0141 O2 sensor heater circuit fault (bank 1, sensor 2). P0300 cylinder misfire detected (random). P0342 camshaft position sensor circuit, low voltage. We know that it's not fuel pump, O2 sensor, plugs/plug wires, camshaft position sensor, crankshaft sensor, coil, fuses, or relay. I know that it could be so many other things as well. I was hoping for some input because I really don't want to go through all of the trouble and it turns out that isn't the problem. Could a fuel injector cause this? Is there a way to find out if the timing chain is a problem without tearing down to visually see it? Any and all advice is very welcomed.

The P0141 is irrelevant to your problem but you maybe should fix it later. The P0300 is a vague symptom of the problem. The P0342 tells you something useful.

If you have a proper scanner you should be able to look at the ignition timing as well as look at the camshaft position sensor waveform. If the sensor isn't bad, likely the cabling to it is bad. That cabling includes the engine block ground, incidentally. But looking at the waveform will tell you a whole lot more than just looking at error codes.

--scott

snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in news:q7k0nd$n75$ snipped-for-privacy@panix2.panix.com:

also how do you know the fuel pump is ok? have you done a pressue test? If the pressure is too low it wont fire the injectors. have you done a comp test. if the chain has jumped it will be low comp on all cyl. and it will sound like it is spinning faster than normal when trying to start it. KB